Tools

Chicago Tap Theatre

Artistic director Mark Yonally's tap operas are a weird combination of savvy and apparent innocence. Without a trace of self-consciousness, he goes out on all kinds of wacky but appealing limbs. Little Dead Riding Hood includes not only the usual suspects from that story but a fleet of other fairy-tale characters: Cinderella's stepfamily, the Snow Queen and her frozen woodland victims, Goldilocks, and Mother Goose. Yonally gleefully plays Scott the Woodsman, a mullet-flipping macho man who trades his ax for a blow-dryer and gives the stepsisters some badly needed makeovers, especially in the area of facial hair. Anna Glowacki's fanciful costumes are a delight, and Andrew Edwards's subtle score buoys the story but gives center stage to the tapping--the piece's irresistible undercurrent and emotional engine. --Laura Molzahn